What happened to Titanfall (aka “the CoD Killer”)?

The amount of buzz and hype behind Titanfall (dubbed “The COD Killer”) prior to launch was off the charts. Critics everywhere were saying it was a game changer and game of the year, and initially we agreed with them. We fell for the hype and were big fans of the game and even started TitanfallBlog.com. We were present for the reveal at the Microsoft press conference last year, saw a demo at E3 and even went hands on with it at Gamescom, Eurogamer and at community events. Titanfall made a GREAT first impression, and it still does.

It wasn’t until about a week after launch did we realize it might not have enough steam to keep the hypetrain going, and we’re starting to think we were right. It’s been nearly 2 months now since launch and judging by fan feedback on Twitter and through the web site, we’re hearing a lot of the same complaints which is what we think is the reason behind it’s downfall and coincidently, the reason behind Call of Duty’s success…

1) Guns and unlocks This is by far the biggest complaint we have for Titanfall and the most common one we read about. 1 sniper rifle and 1 shotgun is unacceptable in this day and age when games like Call of Duty and Battlefield have 5+ to select from for each class. That feeling of “gotta reach level 40 to unlock that new sniper rifle” or “1 more kill for that new camo” are gone. Why should I keep grinding?

2) No Traditional Campaign Titanfall’s MP campaign was a huge gamble that unfortunately didn’t pay off. Gone are the “Oh shit” moments, instead you can beat the campaign by camping and just waiting for the match to end. Respawn even admitted in “Final Hours of Titanfall” that the MP Campaign design was chosen so they wouldn’t delay the game.

3) AI Bots We know they were added with inexperienced players in mind, in addition to the maps needing to be large enough for Titans so you would need more things to shoot at, but I think we can all agree that the AI minions in Titanfall might as well be paper targets. Im not even sure how anyone could market them as “AI” seeing as how stupid they are. Theres no fun (and honor) in shooting something that doesn’t know how to shoot back at you.

4) Auto-Titan enabled because Titans are no fun The game, marketing, and story all revolve around Titans… yet no one wants to play as a Titan which is evident when every Titan in a match is set to auto-Titan. They looked cool and fun in the trailer but all they do is manage to prevent you from your next wall run (which is the coolest part of the game).

These are in no particular order either. All 4 points were major in our opinion that contributed to Titanfall’s fall from grace. Don’t get me wrong, we still play Titanfall from time to time but it clearly didn’t turn out to be the game we thought it would be… Let us know about your experience in the comments below.